Monster Lake · A Thriller

WERE THEY MENACED BY MONSTER OR MURDERER? The little town of Solitaire, located on the shore of lovely Lake Mendocino, has a problem: The tourists are only there during the summer. From May through August they swarm all over the place: Fishing, swimming, eating, drinking, shopping, and-in short-spending those lovely tourist dollars. After Labor Day the place looks more like a deserted crypt in a forgotten graveyard. Local merchants are feeling the pinch and thinking of leaving for the bright lights and big bucks of the Big City. The City Council, faced with the total collapse of Solitaire's economy, comes up with a plan to bring people to the town in the off-season. What they have in mind is reviving an old Huchnom Indian ceremony appeasing the Lake God. (Uncle Hank Cross, local wise man, swears it's an old Indian custom, and who are they to doubt him?) As the Council scurries around, planning the ceremony that might save Solitaire, entrepreneur Hugo Pigott turns up. He plans to buy up as much of the town as he can, turn the pristine wilderness surrounding it into a rich man's playground, and sell the whole package to some Near East oil sheik as a private get-away. Meanwhile, Mayor Steve Cullinan has problems of his own. His mother "channels" and becomes everyone from a Finnish shaman to an official 16th Century English witch. His girlfriend breaks off their engagement because she can't cope with his mother's hobby, and the local Mad Scientist is involved in certain secret and highly illegal activities. Then during the ceremony bystanders are horribly murdered in front of eyewitnesses by a monster very like the one the city hall made out made out of plastic foam and black plastic trashbags. Who is responsible? Some say the genuine monster has returned. Others claim the killings are the work of a clever killer. Either way, the local business owners are wondering if it is time to sell out. Is the town doomed? Then a small band of citizens determined to learn the secret of Monster Lake or die trying. And some of them will!